Audience sings along at benefit concert
Though the Athens Festival is over, concerts in aid of charity continue at the Herod Atticus Theater, for a large fee. One such concert was organized by the City of Athens Institute for the Homeless and its president, Deputy Mayor Lefteris Skiadas, in collaboration with the Panathenaic Union of Women and Youth and the Friends of the Municipal Theater of Piraeus. It was an evening of music and poetry performed by singers Manolis Lidakis, Mario Frangoulis, Fotini Darra and Andreas Smyrnakis, as well as actors Grigoris Valtinos and Despina Bebedeli reading poems by Elytis and Lorca. In the second part, they all sang together, getting the audience on their feet to sing along to songs by Hadjidakis, Theodorakis, Xarchakos, Kokotos, Mikroutsikos and the talented young composer Dimitris Papadimitriou, sung by his favorite, Darra, dressed in white with the movement, rhythm and voice to match her ethereal beauty. The proceeds from the concert, which was called «When I Speak for the Sun» in honor of the tenth anniversary of Elytis’s death, will go to the homeless of the city of Athens. Among the notables present was Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis, formerly mayor of Athens, who sat in the front row, applauding and singing along. She later thanked the performers from the stage.
